This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, September 5, 2017

The right to vote

I was pleased to see John Ricketson letter (Voter Turnout, 8/27). I am always glad when people are willing to engage and have a conversation about these important issues.

Ricketson makes an important point, which I’d like to address briefly. He says, as many do, that everyone has some form of government ID. But in states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina and others, student IDs and expired or out-of-state driver’s licenses are not valid; neither are birth certificates, Social Security cards, or any other official forms of identification that would be considered sufficient in any other interaction with government officials.

I would remind Ricketson that a law does not have to be discriminatory in its intent to be discriminatory in effect. It is possible that the lawmakers who introduced these requirements did so in good faith. But the results are clear: because of these laws, there are people who cannot vote, and overwhelmingly, those people are the most marginalized and disadvantaged.

I take Ricketson at his word that he truly wants everyone to be able to vote. If so, the question I would pose to him is this: why does he believe voter ID laws are necessary? In-person voter fraud is vanishingly rare and statistically nonexistent. ID requirements do nothing to prevent mischief, but they do prevent thousands from exercising their constitutional rights.

Pet obituaries

I do not doubt for a second that the Winkels grieved just as much for their dog, Annabelle Blue, as I grieved for my cats Dugar and Tippi when they passed away. I do have serious reservations about the animal’s obituary being placed with obituaries for human beings. How do you think the other families of deceased loved ones felt being memorialized beside that of an animal? The Telegraph is a business and is fully within its right to sell advertising space as it sees fit, and an obituary is just that, a reverent and respectful advertisement of the life and achievements of a human being.

Maybe the publishers of The Telegraph place their loved ones on the same level of animals, but I certainly do not. What are others to do?Omit any reference to cousins they grew up with and insert the name of 9-year-old Fido instead? What does that say about our values?

You cannot fathom the sorrow, followed by rage, that I would have felt by opening up the obits in October of 2004 and seeing my father’s obituary next to that of a dead hamster. The Telegraph needs to review its policy and, at a minimum, ensure that pet obituaries are never placed in the same section as human obituaries. The staff at Hart’s Mortuary should have been more sensitive and requested the obit be run somewhere else.

Can others join ‘the family’?

On August 27, First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon voted to perform same-sex weddings. We have LGBT friends and also embrace a Christian view of marriage based on the Bible; so here is my analysis.

The definition of “marriage” is limited to the union of two human beings. Historically, marriage is the smallest building block of society and is the foundation for responsible, predictable propagation and preservation of it. The label of marriage is public, binding, and conferred by religious or civil authorities. No society can survive without its women bearing and rearing children. Every human being is the result of one egg from one woman being fertilized by one sperm from one man in one sexual encounter. There is no exception to this fact. It is this unambiguous, narrow kind of marriage, that stabilizes society.

Whereas all of us human beings need and want close human relationships there are plenty of realities that get in the way; e.g., ambiguous gender states, same-sex attractions, and “eunuch” states as they are labeled in antiquity. It is regrettable that we in the churches have taken this long to respond compassionately.

The rules for churches are different and more restrictive than for civil authorities. Federal and state laws have already redefined marriage. The evangelical Christian church response conforms to scripture which requires “repentance toward God, faith in the Lord Jesus, and a public proclamation thereof.” Repentance demands a changed attitude and turning from fornication and adultery along with the other deadly sins. We should welcome and be hospitable to weak and weary sinners of every stripe be they foul minded, cohabiting heterosexuals or homosexuals, addicts, prostitutes or pimps, swindlers, and all the rest. To join the “family,” private sins must be privately forsaken; public sins must be publicly renounced and forsaken.

The challenge is how to integrate chaste and celibate singles, especially LGBT believers, into the “family.” My attempts to get those who identify themselves as gay or lesbian believers to define “sexual sin” have so far gone unanswered. Intuition leads me to believe that churches which perform same-sex unions retain some elements of fidelity that are part of traditional marriage; sexual issues are deliberately ignored.

Wolf in sheep’s clothing

Monkey see, monkey do; the great savior Jack Ellis, as I have often heard him referred to during election time, is once again pleading about the wrong Macon has done to his race. This time with local church pastors in tow.

Bragging about removing the Confederate flag over city hall and buying the Terminal Station (project left undone) to help bring the community together but could not balance the city budget for eight years. These church pastors stand in the pulpit preaching God’s words on forgiveness. They are the lambs being lead to slaughter by the mighty wolf parading around in sheep’s clothing.

Our church leaders need to be praying that Ellis release the hate he has in his heart. It amazes me that once he lets go of the hate it will no longer be an important issue. I see nothing but beauty in the monuments rich with history, Rosa Park with plaques honoring her great works. Marine Sgt. Rodney Davis and the sacrifice he made for this country. How many men black and white did he save?

What bothers me is how all these folks gathered at the Government Center are being led astray by one man.

This story was originally published September 4, 2017 at 9:08 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, September 5, 2017."